Cranes and lanes: Downtown Boise experiencing unprecedented construction boom

Downtown Boise has never seen a boom like this one.

Old-timers talk about the Grove Plaza-centric boom of the late 1980s and ’90s, when the Wells Fargo building, Grove Hotel, Boise Centre and other Downtown cornerstones came out of the ground. In some ways, that growth spurt was more important than what’s going on now.

It set the template for what Boise’s urban core would look like.

But in terms of square footage, this era is unprecedented. Depending on where you draw Downtown’s boundaries, anywhere between seven and 15 major projects are under construction or in the planning phase.

“I’ve been here for 23 years. Downtown sort of goes through clusters of activity, but nothing like what we’ve got now,” city of Boise planning director Hal Simmons said.

WHY NOW?

Somewhat counterintuitively, Simmons traces Downtown’s boom to the Great Recession.

“Somehow, it seems to me that the recession just kind of focused demand back to downtowns,” he said. “Many of the larger cities, at least in the West, are experiencing a similar boom right now.”

Those include Portland and Seattle, Simmons said.

MORE PROJECTS

Simmons expects Downtown development to stay hot. He pointed to major projects in the works, including the expansion of St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center’s downtown campus and developer Clay Carley’s proposed apartment building on the southwest corner of 5th and Idaho streets. Simmons also expects to see more projects in the Central Addition area between Capitol Boulevard, Myrtle Street, Broadway and Front Street.

“Unless something really happens economically, in a bad way, I think you’ll see things continue to happen down here,” he said. “Probably not at the scale that we’re seeing them now.”

THE UPSIDE OF TRAFFIC

Of course, a development spurt isn’t all good news. People who drive through Downtown Boise have had to deal with a series of lane closures that make room for the construction of various projects.

“There’s a general frustration with how hard it is to get around right now,” Simmons said. “But people recognize, too, though, it’s limited. When it’s done, it’ll be better than it is. You definitely suffer some inconvenience, but in the long run, it’s worth it. And it’s unavoidable.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 11:40 PM with the headline "Cranes and lanes: Downtown Boise experiencing unprecedented construction boom."